Advertising

2 Pages 379 Words

Literacy & Propaganda

Advertising is a plague that has swept every medium known to man. Greek tavern owners pioneered the art of advertising using simple relieves to quench any passerby’s visual thirst. Since then, advertisements have taken many forms and continue to harass with 3000 ads a day, magazine readers, radio listeners, television viewers, and Internet surfers are continuously bombarded with useless advertisements. People are now paying to purchase advertisements, some have become walking billboards promoting popular designers and styles. Television has become polluted with endless commercials, during a half hour segment, nine minutes of your favorite show has been replaced with commercials.

Advertisers use clever ways to trick an audience into purchasing a product. A magazine ad for diapers uses some avant-garde advertising techniques. The use of a popular icon captures the eye of the targeted audience. An icon is a product’s mascot, it is a cartoon that humanizes the products and is easily relatable to, the Luvs icon is Barney the Dinosaur, he helps the consumers relate the product with a loveable cartoon that is associated with child care. Barney is synonymous with effeminacy and gentility; who better to promote a product that promises a gentle cloth-like feel.

The advertisers weren’t convinced that one technique would suffice their hunger for consumers. The advertisers used positioning as an under-handed way to convince the audience to purchase the product. Positioning is the placement of an object to stimulate thoughts and associate the product with its location. In this advertisement, the product is placed next to a dainty undergarment; this alludes to the diapers cloth-like fabric. The diaper is also set against a blue sky with fluffy clouds; the clouds also advert to the diapers softness and comfortable fabric.

The Luvs advertising campaign is generally targeting young housewives who want ...